Conditions were cool, but not freezing, a bit of wind, but fortunately not raining

Pace was all over the place, it was a game of chess. Ultimately none of the breakaways were going to stick, I never felt I needed to chase anyone down. I went off the front myself once, and chased another rider, but no one came with me, so I pulled the pin, 2 riders ain't enough for a breakaway at penrith lakes.

Racing the top riders in NSW in my age bracket, I didn't have any issues at all, it was a good test of my post injury fitness.

I didn't feel comfortable about contesting the final sprint, so I didn't

Strava data (which includes warmup and warmdown) shows how the pace was all over the place. I recall doing 50kph and 200 mtrs later hitting 28kph http://app.strava.com/rides/9349633

Background and Start OutThe day before I did a spin class then went out and did the Sydney Road Titles, my first race back, where I was quite nervous, but it gave me the confidence for the Dinnerval. Out of 170 riders there was only one rider older than me on a harder handicap, but I felt confident on the line, but as soon as we went up the connector rd, I knew I was in trouble. Even before we made it onto lap 1, we lost the other older rider in the group.

Lap 1The bunch was hot, I knew that if I could stick it, then I'll be there for the finish. I was struggling, but I was in there. I went thru the loop in the school on the front and didn't see the parking bumps until it was too late and had to take a diversion onto the gravel behind them. Next lap there was an orange cone there... We had made a huge inroad into the bunch in front in 1/2 a lap. The hill was hot and we shredded more riders but I made it over. We continued to eat into the group in front.

Lap 2Going up the hill, I was starting to roll off, I looked down at my speedo and I was doing 20kph on the steep bit, I knew last year I was doing 22kph and that was the difference between going over the top on the front and being dropped and dropped I was, leaving only 8 riders in my bunch. For the next 3 or so K I really gunned it trying to get back on, for a while I thought I could do it, then I realised it was useless. Looking behind me, I could see for miles and there wasn't a single rider and since I've only done one training ride since January, I decided to turn it into a time trail training session. However what came interesting was that I was gaining on the bunch in front of my bunch, but I did realise that once my bunch caught them, that would change, but what the hell, you play your cards and take your chances. After going around the northern turnaround and getting the tail wind, things didn't go so well, I noted I was doing 42kph in a place where we went thru at 48kph the prior lap, I knew I was going backwards at a rapid rate and then 2/3 the way to the hill I was caught by Matts group, which I realised was going slower than my group, most of the dropped riders from my group were in it.

Lap 3The u-turn thru the school to start the 3rd lap and all of a sudden I was in trouble, loosing the rubberband game. I rode solo to the hill and was about 30 seconds behind at the base of the hill. Then came the hill... all of a sudden I didn't have drive, I slowed to a snail's pace and block went past without a chance to get on. At the top I waited a for another rider from my group to get my wheel and then I headed off for another time trial, we picked up rider #133 (what group?) and worked together as a team, though I was doing about 50% of the work. We came upon Strawbuger and I said 'jump on' but Strawbuger's face said it all

HomeThe other 2 riders were wasted and after waiting, we decided to go our own way and I took off and gunned it to the line solo. My worst ever result, unless you want to count when I raced with the remnants of the flu, having taking sickie Mon - Fri. Oh well at least I bet scratch.

Post AnalysisI see that the winner was from my bunch, my prediction early on that they were hot proved to be true. On the hill I had the fastest DHBC time of the DHBC riders who had published on Strava. Matt wasn't there, I'm guessing he would of been quicker.

First time back on a track bike since January (before my accident). Raced the opening round of RAW at Dunc Gray Velodrome, where the held the 2000 Olympics.Warmup race: Dropped, the pace was high and at least I wasn't the first to be dropped.

Three lap screamer: Got second wheel of the line, the first guy controlled the pace, keeping it slow, then sprinted with just under 1.5 laps to go. I wasn't able to hold his well and 2 riders went around me, resulting in 4th, a single point.

Points race: Was in the thick of it but didn't gain any points. A team mate sprinted off a got one of the wins (5 points), then rolled off. What he didn't realise was that if you get lapped, you loose 20 points

Combines: The first few riders went off at typical pace and after they rolled, we ended up with a really slow rider on the front, I had 4th wheel. 1st and 2nd wheel rolled together and 3rd wheel went for it, I went to and got his wheel, he did about a lap and rolled, I went for it. After 1/2 a lap, with 5 to go, I looked around and there was no one, so I decided to have some fun and kept gunning, pulling the gap out to about 50mtrs. Crossing the line with 2 laps to go, I only had 20 mtrs, so I knew I was going to be caught on the last lap, so I rolled and retried.

So this first time on the track bike showed me what was in me and what was missing

Quads in the left leg hurt on the way out, changed my ride style. Glutes hurt towards the end. Hit VO2 max with about 3k to go, but the remaining 2 riders were in worse state than me, so I did most of the final work.

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